Rising sophomore Dominique Price scored four wins by technical fall over the weekend.

May 28, 2013

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A pair of Boilermaker wrestlers brought home All-America honors after outstanding finishes at the 2013 ASICS University National Freestyle Championships, hosted by the University of Akron over the weekend. Rising Purdue senior Cashé Quiroga earned second place at 60 kg (132.3 lbs.), while sophomore Dominique Price took home sixth place at 55 kg (121.2 lbs.) to lead the Boilermaker effort.

Quiroga is Purdue's highest placewinner at the annual summer event since 2010, when Luke Manuel took home the 79 kg (174.2 lbs.) title in 2010. Using the new international freestyle rules for the first time Quiroga thrived, posting a 5-1 record over the two-day tournament with three technical falls. He opened with a hard-fought 13-10 victory over Nebraska's Tim Lambert, and followed up with a 17-6 technical fall over Vincent Pizzuto of Eastern Michigan. Quiroga tacked on technical falls over D'marcus Spencer of King College (12-2) and Johnni DiJulius of Ohio State (15-5) to advance to the semifinals, where he came from behind to earn a 9-8 victory over Iowa's Cory Clark. Quiroga fell in a best-of-three series in the finals to Wisconsin's Tyler Graff, dropping a 10-0 technical fall in the first round and suffering a narrow 5-4 loss in the second.

Price posted a 4-3 record over the weekend, earning all four victories by technical fall. He blanked his first two opponents, scoring a 12-0 win over Buffalo's Mike Soria and notching a 10-0 victory over Nick O'Donnell of Bloomsburg, but fell in the quarterfinals to four-time Minnesota All-American Zach Sanders, 12-2. Price rallied in the wrestlebacks, battling his way into the placing rounds with a 14-3 technical fall over Vito Pasone of Appalachian State and moving on to the consolation semifinals by downing Cal Poly's Britain Longmire, 13-1. The Boilermaker sophomore fell in his final two matches of the day, taking a 10-0 loss to Iowa's Thomas Gilman and being pinned by Northern Iowa's Dylan Peters at 1:01, after building a 4-0 lead on the Panther freshman.

"We're excited about the way our guys wrestled this weekend," said Purdue head coach Scott Hinkel. "Competing in freestyle is a nice change of pace for the guys and allows them to switch up their training in the summertime. This weekend's results show me that they're doing the right things in the offseason to be ready for 2013-14."

The Boilermakers received solid outings from their other five entries as sophomore Luke Schroder was 1-2 at 60 kg, juniors Brandon Nelsen and Nick Lawrence went 2-2 and 3-2, respectively, at 66 kg (145.5 lbs.), rookie Alex Griffin turned in a 2-2 mark at 70 kg (154.3 lbs.) and senior Alex White was 3-2 at 120 kg (264.5 lbs.). Lawrence and White fell just one win shy of the placing rounds, losing in their respective Round of 12 matches.